All That Remains
by Phoenix Dayze
Summary: “Give up, Zack.” Sephiroth advised him. “I’ve killed you five hundred times tonight. Once more makes no difference to me.”


All That Remains…  
By: Phoenix Dayze  
(Sephiroth/Zack)  
PG-13

Disclaimer: I do not own Final Fantasy or its characters. There, I said it.

Sephiroth's heart kept beating. He wished it hadn't. Jenova. His mother. A sharp twinge of denial settled in the back of his mind, and an aching pain cascaded through him, tiny sparks of anger rippling through his veins. It couldn't be true. How had this happened? Why had this been done to him? Everything he knew, all his memories, it was all a lie! He'd been raised in a lab, experimented on, mutated as though he was nothing more than a piece of meat. He'd been bred solely to do Jenova's will. He growled. He was nothing but a pawn! A child twisted, coerced into being the devil's own spawn.

Sephiroth clenched his fists at his sides. He wondered briefly if Zack knew about this. True, Zack was technically beneath him in the chain of command, but Zack was a brilliant SOLDIER. He was quick and perceptive, and could read people a mile away. He also had an uncanny gift for finding the good in people. Zack couldn't have known. If he had, he would have told him. Wouldn't he? For the first time since he'd met the brash, headstrong young man, Sephiroth felt the poisonous stirrings of doubt.

Zack could have been in on this all along… Zack who'd been promoted to SOLDIER 1st Class so quickly, despite his age. Zack who'd been kept so close to him. Zack who offered his advice freely and readily. Zack who was at all times unfailingly loyal to SOLDIER. Zack who said that he loved him…

Rage boiled beneath Sephiroth's skin and he could feel his nails slicing into his palms. It all seemed so trite now, impersonal and forced. How could Zack betray him like this? It had taken him so long to come to trust the young SOLDIER. Even longer to believe in the seemingly innocent passion that Zack claimed to feel. And for what? A terrible agony crushed down on Sephiroth's heart, one that left him breathless and trembling. He'd given Zack everything. Allowed him to steal his heart away. Allowed him inside his dark and twisted existence to possess his soul. And he'd done what his very nature defied. He'd fallen in love…

His fuming rage soon melted into a cold, malicious ire, and an aching, burning desire for revenge. Irate anticipation danced along his fingertips. He wanted to make them pay. Wanted them to feel the wretched heat of betrayal. Not just Hojo, the man responsible for putting the demon inside him, but all of them. Shinra, who's labs made it possible. The cursed town that held it. Zack and his traitorous smile and heartless lies… He wanted all of them to feel the searing pain that was eating away at his insides. His life was in ruins, destroyed by their nefarious scheming, crippling his dreams and bringing his future to its knees. They deserved to be punished. It was only fair that they share in his destruction.

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The town burned. Flames licked up with delicious intensity around Sephiroth's body as he glided through the desecrated streets, seemingly unaffected by the near-crippling heat. The chaos that had ensued at the first signs of the unforgiving fire had finally began to die down. Or rather… _the people died_… The profound justice that Sephiroth had always supported had disappeared, or else it had taken a vicious new meaning. The townsfolk had scattered. Running, screaming into the streets, fleeing the flames and seeking refuge. And he, Sephiroth, had killed them. Every person that had crossed his path had given blood to his sword. And still he wasn't satisfied. So he kept on killing. Reveling in the blue eyes filled with undisguised agony. The shock of dark, spiky hair flecked with a deep, unmistakable crimson. The damnable smile fading as death found him. They were all the same. And it was never enough.

Slowly he made his way back to the mansion. Back up the condemning staircase. Back to the lair of Jenova… He stood before her, staring into the glass. "Do you see, Mother?" He asked with infuriating calmness. "Do you see what I have done? What does it mean, do you think?" He gazed into the reflection of his green-reptilian eyes that was barely visible in the glass, like a wisp of overlaying fog. The demon's eyes… Jenova's eyes… "I was always a demon, wasn't I, Mother?" He gave a dry laugh. "You were there all along. Guiding me. Twisting me. Corrupting me from the inside out. Have I been a good son, Mother?" He snarled.

He froze as cold steel pressed against the back of his neck. The unquenchable anger prickled along his skin as a too-familiar, now-despised voice assailed his ears.

"I never thought of you as a demon."

Sephiroth turned, ignoring the large blade. It was a hollow threat. Dark, icy lust consumed him as his feral gaze finally fell on the face of his so-called lover. "You shouldn't have come here, Zack." His voice was cold, stoic, brittled with pent-up urges of insatiable power.

Zack's stance was sure, his arm strong. But beneath his determined exterior, was a ferocious confusion and an unbearable sadness. "Sephiroth," He said slowly, "why have you done this?"

Sephiroth smiled, but the light, the humor that used to lurk in its shadow, was gone. "I've only shared what you've given me."

Zack's brows drew together in a frown. "I don't understand."

"Don't antagonize me, Zack." Sephiroth snapped. "You've known about _this_," he gestured to Jenova with one long arm, "all along. And now that I'm finally in on your little secret, I felt the need to pass on my… good fortune."

"So you massacred an entire town?" Zack's voice was heavy with questions, tinged with desperation. "Why? What have I done that deserved such vengeance?"

Pain gleamed in the green depths as Sephiroth closed in on the younger man. "You betrayed me."

Zack shook his head. "No… I didn't."

"You're a very good liar, Zack." Sephiroth said. "I have to admit, you had me fooled. I truly believed that you loved me, but you're just like the rest of them." The invariable anger, the smothering hatred bore down on him again. "You used me… You _helped_ them…"

A wretched understanding filled Zack's eyes and a grave sorrow washed over him. "I do love you." He peered into Sephiroth's gleaming eyes, which were now devoid of any shred of humanity. The man he'd been… the man Zack still desperately loved… was gone. "I do love you." Zack repeated. "And I cannot believe that I have to do this… but…"

Sephiroth laughed. "Are you going to arrest me, Zack?" He raised his sword and tapped it lightly against the gleaming edge of Zack's buster sword. "You always were a good SOLDIER."

Zack took a deep breath and prayed for strength. "So were you."

And the fight began. The two men battled, warring for dominance, for truth, for life… Sephiroth was fierce and harsh, his boiling cesspool of hate igniting an unholy strength within him. Zack parried every blow, channeling all his love and belief in the General he knew into the swing of his massive blade. Their swords clashed and stuck, and the two men stood at an impasse, staring into each other's eyes. Sephiroth's green eyes glinted of hurt he would not accept and Zack's blue ones responded with a crippling anguish.

"Give up, Zack." Sephiroth advised him. "I've killed you five hundred times tonight. Once more makes no difference to me."

"Kill me then." Zack countered. "It won't make me love you any less."

A tiny flash of clarity flickered across Sephiroth's eyes. A barely perceptible moment of awareness amidst the madness. But it was enough to make Zack hesitate. And that was the opening that Sephiroth had been waiting for. Using an unexpected blast of materia, he sent Zack's blade spinning through the air, lodging it in a nearby scaffolding. He stared into the searching, far too accepting blue eyes of his opponent, then, with a flash of his sword, he sent him reeling back into a hunk of metal. Zack crumpled to the ground… and was still.

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A hail of bullets pierced his flesh. He dropped to the ground, his heart bleeding out into the greedy earth. The last thing he had, the single precious light that drove him, was being stripped away. He could feel it deep within his soul. The final vestige of a buried dream ebbing away. Love had never died. Even after five years it still clung to the façade of forgotten. Sephiroth opened his eyes. Something in him had changed. He felt as though the final ember had died, extinguishing a life-saving flame forever. But try as he might, he couldn't recall if there'd been any lurking goodness in his tainted existence. He shook his head. It was just a dream… A familiar ache spread across his heart and in response, he could feel the demon rising up in a haze of unforgiving green. With an amenable smile of relent, he gave himself up to it, surrendering his conscience to his 'mother's' will, never to return. There was no longer any need.

The End.


End file.
